Admins and non-billable staff (aka overhead costs) are being jettisoned

Also do you think the longer you have been with the firm, the safer you are from layoffs?

i would say deadwood in general...
but the real reason i'm posting is to say that yours is my favorite posting name of the moment, cool foot....

last in first out, but as the decline deepens, it'll be everyone but the CEO.

loyalty & seniority count for little in today's cutthroat office culture. as a business decision, high-priced free agents are typically the first to go. if you're underpaid then that just might be your best form of security.

Across the board, except partners, including senior people with many years tenure.

typically, the last people to go are the senior, senior staff, and the CA people - that is if anything is under construction.

Here is something I noticed:

Foreigners who are going through sponsorship are definitely on the front lines...

You don't think there is an architect sitting at the financial control of large offices...nope it is a mba.

Intern - six months with the company - made it to the third round of lay offs - third of the company laid off, and more after me.

It depends on the firm, and the particular people involved (both the employees and the principals.)
Right now I'm the last employee left in a firm that had 8 staff and 2 owners.
Out of the 7 I was hired 4th. But the person who was laid off last was the most recent hire.
I was the most senior in the hierarchy. But the person laid off last was the 2nd lowest in the hierarchy.

I think in our case decisions were made mainly based on two things:
1. Who was involved in which projects. As the projects finished up their associated staff were let go. Since I was involved in all projects I have managed to stay.
2. Who had the most flexible skills and usefulness. The first to go were the more specialized in terms of what they typically did in the firm. At least one of them was generally viewed as being uncooperative about doing things he didn't like to do.

Layoffs started here in early summer and have continued up until last month. I may or may not be able to ride it out.

needle - i have to ask: are you sure they (the owners) are not just winding down the affairs of the firm in order to close it?

i think for most small firms, your observations are dead on. unless someone was just awful (and, in that environment, they wouldn't have lasted as long if they were), then you start with who is the least productive or relevant to your current/immediate project load. work your way up from there.

The owners intend to continue the firm, as long as they can scramble up work, and they're working very hard to do that. For now we are down to a collection of small projects and things are slow and I don't think I'm immune to being laid off if it comes down to things getting that bad that they don't need any staff at all. I have only lasted this long because of having a role in every project, and because I have more versatile experience & abilities than some.

maybe architectsd should diversity. a combination architecture firm / surgical specialties pratice might have better chances...

i'm making some friends in the med school just in case

Intriguing idea, Ryan! Perhaps we could create a race of human/building hybrids who had the ability to shelter themselves anywhere in the world--with deadly force. Muah hah hah haaaaaaaaah!

There is no rhyme or reason to lay-offs since the folks chosen are a mix of the expected and unexpected, young and experienced, busy or not busy, hard working and lazy. I have seen foreigners on special visas kept while Americans are let go so that is not an issue either. I think a mix of salary and folks needed for the type of projects the firm expects is maybe a deciding factor.

Needlebeam, I'm the one who's really good at graphic and presentation in my office, seriously, no one else in my office can do presentations as quick and good as I do, but I'm NOT happy doing those things at all, I want to do CD,CA,etc (which I don't have much knowledge of). and people know. so I'm in great danger to lose job if my firm will lay people off?

everyone's idea?

I think it just depends on your firm and how they operate.
My experience has usually been that people who aren't versatile are among the first to go.
But what you're saying is that you're really willing to do a lot of things - you just don't have experience in them yet. That's different than being the presentation wiz and turning your nose up at the idea that maybe you could do something else on a project, if it needed doing, in a pinch.

In my firm one of the first two people to go was the firm's freehand sketch wiz. When things were busy he was able to do almost nothing but sketch. Everytime there was a proposal or a presentation sketch that somebody needed on any project they'd just drop it off with him.
But when things got slower we didn't have enough sketches on enough projects to keep him busy doing just that. And it's not like we just decided "ok, the sketch artist has to go". First we decided "the sketch artist needs to branch out". But when we relayed this to him he was not exactly thrilled and not that easy to train or work with in other areas. For example we asked that he work on the first draft of some specs - and he said "I don't know how to do that", and we said we knew that but wanted him to give it a shot so we could mark it up and help him learn. He very grudgingly and half-heartedly worked on this for about four times as long as it should have taken, and in such a half-assed way that it seemed like he was trying to make us never want him to do specs again.
So we gave him some little CD sets to work on - and same problems: attitude, no real interest in learning, work so sloppy it seemed almost deliberately...

I think your best bet is to make it clear that you're eager to get experience in anything you can, and to fit into projects wherever you can possibly be valuable at any given moment.
But always have a backup plan. Everybody is expendable!

thanks,Needlebeam
interesting that he's at the complete opposite to me.

I'm very unhappy that I only got to do presentation in two years and didn't have much development in other tech areas. they always move me to schematic phases without allowing me to finish the whole project.
u know after years of arch education, u don't want to be a graphic designer but an architect.

now they know I'm unhappy so trying not giving me all presentation any more but suddenly it seems I don't have much work load either. work is slow and I'm slow doing tech stuff too. I know my skills r vital to the office but not very comfortable when running out of things to do.

Here's an answer to the question: Everyone.


Two nameless (Arch. related) firms based in London are planning to put their entire staffs on notice of redundancy in the first week of January. This is not scaremongering, and not everyone will be fired, but the cuts are likely to be in the order of 30%+ of staff, and one of the firms looks like folding. These companies between them employ thousands within the UK.